Home
by Red Bess Rackham
Summary: "It takes a lot to admit you're wrong, but even more to admit you're wrong if you've been wrong for a long time." He thought of the magic clock hanging in the kitchen and imagined his hand pointing accurately to 'Lost'. Percy wanted to go home. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: Do not own the Harry Potter Universe, and only partially own this plot. Ideas from a few fics I have read merged together and snowballed inot something I now call my own. Have a nice day.

A/n: Sometime I really despise the muses in my head. Here I am, laying in bed, its 1:30 in the morning, and this idea slides into my brain and begins rolling around and snowballing. Try to ignore it, and all I get is the idea poking hard, yelling "write me!" So, grumpy that I was almost asleep, I flip on the stinking lamp and jot this down in my notebook so I can eventually get some sleep. (Later: All own in the notebook, now being put on the computer, at 3 in the afternoon. FF submission soon to follow, and if you are reading this on FF, well, then its already up.)

Set between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. No HBP spoilers.

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HOME

Percy hadn't moved an inch in the last hour. His eyes hadn't blinked in several seconds. He hadn't swallowed in the same amount of time. If anyone was to look at him, they'd probably swear he was a realistic looking statue or a figure from a wax museum.

He wasn't doing it on purpose. It was just that late last night he'd gotten word - from Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself - that the evil Lord Voldemort had indeed risen, as Dumbledore had been claiming for almost a year. Percy hadn't slept at all and now sat in his office at the Ministry where there was constant hurried and almost panicked activity outside his door.

The entire hour he'd been sitting there, watching his cup of coffee cool, no one had called upon him. No one seemed to notice whether he had shown up for work or not, and apparently it didn't matter, as no one had bothered to look in or try to contact him in any way.

But that wasn't what was bothering him.

Mostly, like everyone else, it was the sick shock factor of knowing Voldemort was back. The terror at the mere mention of the wizard's name was enough to take one's breath away. And Percy had been old enough to understand the fear and darkness that had bee constant when Voldemort had previously been around, although Percy had never experienced first hand. He was easily too young for that. The feelings came from his older brothers, at the time, and of course his parents. Percy hadn't been old enough to truly understand conversation or remember it clearly, for that matter, but he did remember images and feelings.

The other part of everything that was keeping Percy so still was the flood after flood of emotions and realizations all pounding across and through him at the revelation that Voldemort was back. It meant Dumbledore was right, and Fudge - who was sure to be replaced quickly - was wrong. It meant his parents were right - especially his father - and the people Percy admired were wrong. But most of all, it meant that Percy was cut off from his family for all the wrong reasons and had little chance of getting back.

Finally he swallowed, blinked and shifted, as he felt a painful cramp growing in his shoulder. His eyes watered a little from lack of blinking, as he ended up staring into space again, and wave after wave of memories bombarded him.

* * *

He remembered being little as he tottered towards his mother.

_Bill looked down at Percy with shining eyes and Charlie brought his plate to the sink to be washed. Percy wasn't entirely sure of the words of the conversation, but when his father finished speaking quickly, Mrs. Weasley burst into tears, Bill looked sad and Charlie looked confused._

_Little Percy tugged on Bill's sleeve. "What?" he said._

_Bill shook his head. "I'll tell you when you're older."_

_And when he was older, Percy found out what had happened that night: Voldemort was defeated and the Potter's were murdered. The only survivor was baby Harry, the Boy Who Lived.

* * *

_

He was older now, and laying on his stomach on his bed reading a book like it was going out of style. He vaguely recalled it was about frogs and other amphibians.

_Bill knocked on Percy's door and leaned in. "Don't you ever do anything other than read?" he asked good-naturedly._

_Percy shook his head._

_Bill smiled. "Happy Birthday, Perce." And he tossed a package on Percy's bed then left the room._

_Percy read the card first, a hand-made card signed by Bill, Charlie, the twins Fred and George, and even little Ron scrawled his four-and-a-half-year-old writing on there. Ginny was signed by someone else, as she didn't write that well yet. He grinned at one of their attempted drawings at him reading with his funny-shaped glasses on. He gently shut the card and set it aside._

_He tore off the brown packaging of the box, revealing his present, which was another book. He was touched and delighted - as one almost always is when receiving a gift - to see a thick book on wizarding history._

_Percy dropped the mildly interesting frog book and clutched the wizard history book to his chest. He loved history, and although the book was obviously thick and probably a challenging read, Percy knew he'd have it read in a mere few days and have it read more than twice by the end of the month._

_He loved that his brothers knew him so well.

* * *

_

It was the summer before he was to leave for Hogwarts.

_The grass was freshly cut and Mrs. Weasley had made a large pitcher of chilled lemonade for the kids to drink, and then asked Percy and Charlie to be in charge of the other three while she ran out to do a few errands. Bill was at a friend's house._

_Percy glanced up occasionally from his fantasy fiction book to see how the others were getting on. Charlie, Fred and George were trying to teach Ron and Ginny how to play Quidditch. Ron knew the basics, he just wasn't very good at them._

_A few minutes later, Ginny started wailing and ran over to Percy. He immediately dropped his book and stood._

_"Ginny1 What's wrong!"_

_"Where Mommmyyyy!" she hollered as the other boys came rushing up behind her._

_"What happened?" Percy asked._

_Crying, Ginny pointed at her elbow where there was a fresh bleeding scrape and then pointed at the area where they'd been playing Quidditch. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what she meant._

_Percy looked at Charlie and said, "Just a scrape."_

_Charlie looked relieved. "Thought it was something worse..." he mumbled, and he and the twins headed back to their make-believe Quidditch pitch._

_"Is Ginny ok?" Ron said, his eyes wide and his voice small._

_Though only the third oldest, and ten years old at the time, Percy suddenly felt a lot older as he looked at little six-and-a-half-year-old Ron. "She's going to be fine. You can keep playing, Ronnie, she'll be out in a minute."_

_Ron nodded and slowly went to rejoin the others._

_Ginny held tight to Percy's leg. "Where's Mommy?" she asked, no longer screaming and sobbing, though still producing tears._

_"She's out, sweetie. But let's go put a band-aid on that, ok?" Percy said gently._

_Ginny sniffed and peeled herself from Percy's leg. The two of them headed inside in search of a band-aid. When Percy located one in the bathroom medicine cabinet, he had Ginny sit on the toilet with the seat down as he carefully patched her elbow up._

_"There!" he softly patted her bandaged elbow. "Good as new."_

_Ginny lowered her elbow, but her big brown eyes were full of new tears. "Percy?"_

_"Aw, what is it, Gin? Is there more hurt?"_

_Ginny started to shake her head but changed her mind and nodded._

_"Where is it?"_

_Ginny pointed at her chest. "My heart hurts."_

_Confused, Percy said, "Well... would you like a band-aid for that too?"_

_Ginny ignored his question and pushed her bottom lip out. "Why do you have to go away? Billy and Charlie did too." _

_"Oh Gin." Percy sagged slightly. They'd been over this going-to-Hogwarts thing several times, though always when Mrs. Weasley was around. "I'll be back. Bill and Charlie came back, didn't they?"_

_"But why?" Ginny insisted._

_"It's called 'school'. You'll understand when you're old enough."_

_Ginny leaned froward and hugged her brother._

Percy wasn't exceptionally close to any his siblings really, except maybe Bill, who always seemed old enough to like his brothers and not consider them annoying pests. Percy had a special bond with Ginny. Perhaps it was because she was his only sister or the youngest, or the combination of the two. Either way, he always felt affection towards her and was very protective of her.

_"Please don't go." Ginny said quietly._

_Percy hugged Ginny back and tried to think of words that would offer a small measure of comfort. "I won't really be gone, you know._

_"How can you not be gone... when you're... gone?" Ginny looked up at Percy._

_Percy smiled. "Because I'll write you lots of letters, and of course I'll be back at Christmas and Easter, and then summer again! I'll be back before you know it."_

_Percy tapped her on the nose and she giggled a little and sniffed._

_"Besides," Percy pulled out the hug and stared affectionately down at Ginny's round face. "You'll still have Fred and George and Ron. I'll bet you won't even notice I'm gone."_

_Ginny gave a little sigh and hugged Percy tightly again. "Maybe not." she paused. "Love you, Percy."_

_"Love you too, Gin."

* * *

_

He remembered writing that ridiculous letter to Ron.

_Percy was graduated and Ron was a fifth year. Percy had gone on about how right the Ministry was, how wrong his family was, how Ron should abandon his family - like Percy had - and dump his delusional best friend Harry Potter._

_Moments before he'd sat down with a quill to ink out those words to his brother, he'd received a surprising note from his mother:_

_"Dear Percy,_

_Son, please come home. I'm at the point where I don't care what anyone in this family believes as long as we're together as a family again. Your father I love you no matter what, Percy, please know and remember that. Please come home._

_Love From, your mother_

_Molly Weasley"_

He remembered feeling completely disgusted and tossing the letter over his shoulder into the trash. Then he felt like 'getting back' at his parents for not being on his side and had written the letter to Ron.

He'd never got a reply back.

* * *

Percy shifted in his seat, his head now resting on his hands. His eyes were moist, but this time not from lack of blinking. He swallowed against the lump in his throat, but it didn't go away.

He missed his family. He really did. Even when they'd been apart with an icy silence between them, he'd still missed them. Even when he'd believed in his heart that they were stupid and wrong, he still missed being with them.

Percy sniffed and a tear slid off his nose and landed on a grubby piece of paper that had hastily been salvaged moments before the trash had to be taken out. He had thrown the letter out, but for some reason that was still unknown to him, he'd been compelled to retrieve the letter and put it away for safekeeping.

"_Your father and I love you no matter what..._"

Percy desperately hoped that were true.

His thoughts flitted to the magic clock that Mrs. Weasley had hanging in the kitchen. He imagined his hand pointing at 'Work', though more accurately at 'Lost', for that's what he felt. Lost indeed, but he wasn't going to be anymore.

Percy stood and grabbed the letter from his desk. He held it up and when he spoke, it was as if he were telling the letter, trusting it would pass the message on to Mrs. Weasley.

"I'm coming home."

* * *

Percy's teeth chattered as he tramped across the grassy ground. It was unusual to have such a cold wind on a summer's day, but he'd seen weirder weather at this time of the year. He pulled his jacket tighter around him, as he had been doing since Apparating at the bottom of the long driveway. He could've Apparated closer, he supposed, but he needed the long walk to calm himself down and build up some courage.

He recalled a quote he'd once heard and thought it most likely had come from his father. "It takes a lot to admit you're wrong, but even more to admit you're wrong if you've been wrong for a long time."

He could definitely see how that was true.

As Percy kept walking towards the house that really was home, he felt broken inside. Like he'd been someone else for a year and now that other self had fled and all that was left were guilt, memories and an overwhelming feeling of sadness and shame. He wondered if he'd ever feel normal again.

He glanced up at the windows of the Burrow, which simply seemed to be oozing warmth. Oh, how he suddenly wanted a part of that warmth! He wondered if anyone saw him coming - not that they would have any reason to think he'd ever return, or expect him shortly. Really, they had no reason to do anything other than slam the door in his face and tell him to go rot. So, he figured, any warmer of a welcome than that, and he was blessed.

He was nearly at the doorstep now, his heart pounding, teeth chattering, stomach turning, and hands trembling in his pockets. He couldn't predict the reaction he'd get when the door was opened to reveal him standing there. He wasn't sure if he wanted to.

The window to the left of the door was open a crack, as were the curtains inside. He couldn't resist a peek and felt a jolt in his stomach. There, just inside all that warmth, was his family. There was Bill, Charlie and his father, Fred, George, Ron, Mrs. Weasley, and Ginny... They were all laughing at something the twins were demonstrating, though Percy could tell it was just a small distraction from the darkening world outside.

He could see the enchanted clock clearly from his position and saw all hands except for his pointed to 'Home'. Grimly, he thought that that would soon change, considering Voldemort and his Death Eaters were once again at large.

The hand on the clock labelled 'Percy' moved from 'Lost' to 'Home'. No one seemed to notice and or some reason the clock only caused Percy to become even more emotional. He quickly moved away from the window and stood on the doorstep, trying to swallow down the immense amount of emotion clogging his throat and making his chest heavy.

He swallowed hard, blinked several times and raised his hand to knock. He hesitated - no, he couldn't lose his nerve now... _not_ now. He shut his eyes briefly and knocked on the door with three steady loud knocks.

"I'll get it." he heard Mrs. Weasley say inside, and he had an almost uncontrollable urge to bolt. He suddenly wanted to hide, but as soon as the door opened, he was frozen.

Mrs. Weasley's face had been smiling and bright, but as soon as she saw her son Percy, her smile was gone in a flash and her skin paled slightly. She too seemed frozen.

"Who is it, Molly?" Arthur called from where they had all been gathered. "Someone from the Ministry?"

Mrs. Weasley's mouth was slightly agape and her fingers touched her chest. Percy wondered what could possibly be going through her mind, though she looked like she couldn't bring herself to believe the site before her.

"Molly?" Arthur said, and it sounded like he had gotten out of his chair.

Percy swallowed as hard as he could to clear an opening in his throat for words to get through. His eyes were beginning to fill with tears and he had to speak before he completely lost it.

"I was wrong." he whispered as the door opened fully, revealing Arthur and letting everyone in the house see who was at the door. He ignored it as he saw his mother's eyes fill up with tears also. Percy swallowed again against the collective gasp and murmur coming from the room behind his parents. As the tears completely blurred his vision, he croaked quietly,

"I'm home, mum."

After that, it was more tears and an embrace - from both sides.

Percy knew it was going to be hard going from that point on, in more ways than one. But he had a family again, and quite frankly, that was the only important thing.

**THE END**

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A/n: Thankfully, my muses let me sleep halfway through so I was able to finish this the next day. Though getting it into the computer was wrought with interruption after interruption... Anyways, tell me what you thought and leave me a review (just no swearing please).

Also, please note (to my regulars): _If Diggory Hadn't Died_ has been updated, and a new chapter of _Keeper's Heart_ is on the way soon. Review me! And, as always, check out my bio frequently to see if there is anything new.


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